Shivamogga Assembly constituency, which falls under the Shimoga Lok Sabha Constituency, will witness a high-voltage contest between SN Channabasappa from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), HC Yogesh from the Indian National Congress (INC) and Aynur Manjunath from the Janata Dal (Secular).
Shivamogga city, which often makes headlines for communal clashes, was BJP stalwart KS Eshwarappa’s stronghold for the last 25 years.
In 2018, Eshwarappa won the seat by defeating KB Prasanna Kumarof the Congress with a margin of 46107 votes.
A five-time MLA from Shivamogga and one of the most prominent Kuruba (a backward Hindu caste) leaders of the BJP, former deputy chief minister Eshwarappa was groomed by the saffron party as the face of Hindutva.
He recently hit the headlines after announcing that the BJP does not need Muslim votes in Shivamogga constituency.
Eshwarappa announced his exit from electoral politics after being denied an election ticket from the constituency. However, Eshwarappa had sought the Shivamogga constituency ticket for his son KE Kantesh which the saffron party refused.
Channabasappa, a hardline Sangh Parivar worker who is a little-known corporator in the city’s municipal council but whose only claim to fame is that he threatened to behead Congress leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah if he “dared” to consume beef in Shimoga. He even went to jail for his hate speech against the former Chief Minister.
Senior BJP leader and MLC Ayanur Manjunath, who was also a ticket aspirant from Shivamogga, resigned from the party, and joined the JD(S).
The constituency recorded a 66.7 per cent voter turnout in the 2018 Karnataka assembly election.
Out of 224 seats in the Karnataka Assembly, the winning party must have at least 113 seats from the government in Karnataka.
The Karnataka Assembly Election 2023 will be held on May 10, 2023, and the results for the high-stake polls will be declared on May 13, 2023.